Groups nix Russian activist's CA visit

NEWS

by Cynthia Laird

Several local and California organizations have pulled the
plug on their sponsorship of a visit to the Golden State by prominent Russian
gay rights activist Nikolai Alekseev after it was discovered that he posted an
anti-Jewish remark on a blog that he owns.

Alekseev was to have appeared in San Francisco at the LGBT
Community Center Monday, March 7. An interview that he gave to the paper before
news broke of the sponsorship flap is on page 6.

Alekseev said in a statement Tuesday that he still plans to
come to California. On his Facebook page, according to a source, he posted,
"It's time to shake the Castro and I will do it. So that those who forgot
what is gay activism switch on their brain again and not conceal behind the
name of Harvey Milk."

Equality California and Robin Tyler, of Robin Tyler
Productions, were the main sponsors of Alekseev's visit. But a broad range of
organizations were also on board, including Congregation Kol-Ami, Jewish
Community Relations Council, Get Equal, Christopher Street West, and the
National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Scott Long, formerly of Human Rights Watch and now a fellow
at Harvard, captured the January 31 blog post on February 26. The specific
quote from Alekseev (since deleted) reads: "The Jews and Mubarak ... The
Israeli Prime Minister urged Western leaders to support Egyptian dictator
Mubarak ... And who after this are the Jews? In fact, I always knew who they
were." (Ellipses in original.)

In a statement released Tuesday night, Alekseev said he did
publish the comments, which he said were directed at the Israeli government.

"I was angry that anyone could support this dictator
[Mubarak] as he was killing his own people. My comments appeared to blame all
Jews for the actions of the Israeli government and its supporters," he
said.

Alekseev said he is a "strong believer" in human
rights and equality for everyone, "irrespective of personal
characteristics, whether it is sexual orientation, race, gender, national or
ethnic origin, religion, or any other basis."

Tyler said she saw Alekseev's quote in English, not
translated from Russian, before it was taken down. She said the groups
organizing Alekseev's visit were asked to wait for the activist to clarify his
remarks, but that clarification never came.

"Andy Thayer a few days ago asked us to wait until we
made a decision, as Nikolai was going to make a statement clarifying his
misquotes around Jewish people," Tyler said in an e-mail Tuesday to the Bay
Area Reporter. Thayer, with Gay Liberation
Network Chicago, has helped coordinate Alekseev's visit to the United States.

Tyler said that Thayer called Monday afternoon and said
Alekseev refused to make a statement but would "explain everything"
when he got here.

"We said we had a lot of Jewish sponsorship to these
events, plus other organizations who fight racism and anti-Semitism
(anti-Jewish remarks). So yesterday at 4 p.m. we told Andy we were going to
cancel," Tyler said.

She said Thayer went to Alekseev's hotel room in Chicago and
told him the California visits had been canceled.

"Nikolai put out a statement last night saying he was
canceling California, hours after he found out he was canceled," Tyler
said.

In fact, Alekseev, on his Facebook page, posted a lengthy
note explaining that he was "highly pressured" by Tyler "in
terms that are not acceptable."

"I have experienced such a stress in the last hours
than cannot even be compared with what I faced while being arrested and
insulted by the Moscow police over the last years," he wrote.

He alluded to being pressured into toning down comments
about gay organizations, what he called "Gay Inc."

"This restriction of my freedom of speech was not
acceptable to me," he wrote.

Tyler denied that.

"I never told him to tone down his comments on Gay
Inc.," Tyler said.

Alekseev was also critical of Long, saying that he waited
"until I arrived in America to run his campaign because by attacking me,
he was at the same time attacking the activists from Chicago who are also not
his toys."

Alekseev did not address the offending blog post in his
Facebook note.

"There was no 'campaign,' and I don't even know who the
activists from Chicago are," Long said in an e-mail Tuesday.

"Generalizations about a racial, religious, or ethnic
group cross a line," Long added. "They're wrong in themselves and
they're wrong when indulged by LGBT activists who have a responsibility to be
true to their own values of equality and understanding."

Long said he had nothing to do with the cancellation.

"I never spoke to Robin Tyler in my life," he
said. "I would have preferred, in fact, that Nikolai speak, and answer
public challenges about what he wrote."

The statement put out by the coalition that had organized
Alekseev's visit to California said, "Offensive remarks against a
religious and ethnic group is at direct odds with the goal of our
coalition."